Frank Warren
Frank Warren, Britain’s premier and longest-serving boxing promoter, has been building champions in the professional sport for nearly 45 years and was acknowledged for his work across the industry in 2008 with his entrance into the International Hall of Fame.
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Mayweather Can Wait - I’Ll Be Setting My Alarm To Watch Cotto In A Genuine Fight
By Queensberry Promotions
HUBBARD’S CUPBOARD - 25.8.17
By Alan Hubbard
OK, I’ll admit it. Much against my better judgement I’ve been sucker-punched into coughing the best part of a score for the PPV of that mega-bunfight in Las Vegas this weekend. Strictly for professional reasons, you’ll understand.
Not that I’ll be watching it live as Floyd Mayweather jnr and Conor McGregor go about conducting their hideously over-hyped cross-over contest. No, that can wait until after breakfast on Sunday morning as I’m pretty sure I know the result already. Don’t you?’
It is not so much a fight, more a foregone conclusion. A mismatch mix-match.
Instead I’ll be setting my alarm for the early hours of Sunday morning to witness a real fight on BoxNation between one of my all-time favourite box-fighters, Miguel Cotto, in what might be his penultimate ring appearance in going for his sixth world title against the aggressive Japanese slugger Yoshihiro Kamegai.
I love Cotto. For me he is one of those pros who are the very backbone of boxing, a fighters’ fighter who never lets anyone down, least of all himself.
A punch trader of the highest order and the man who Mayweather himself has described as “the toughest guy I ever fought.”
At 36 the poker-faced Puerto Rican seems to have been around forever (actually it is just over 16 years) and his 45-fight record through a clutch of weight divisions is studded with star names he has either beaten or have given one hell of a fight, from Mosley to Alvarez via Pacquiao and Mayweather.
Cotto v Kamegai, from the StubHub Center in Carson, California, is a 12-round fight for the vacant WBO world super-welterweight championship. It is likely to be a fast and fiery encounter.
Kamegai is one of the highest-action fighters in the sport having engaged in a fight of the year candidate against Jesus "Renuente" Soto Karass in 2016 and taking champions and contenders including Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, Alfonso Gomez and Johan "El Terrible" Perez into deep water.
Cotto is expected to retire at the end of the year. But there are so many opportunities for big fights for a boxer of his quality that it is difficult to see him walking away.
But just in case he does, this is a great opportunity to appreciate his tenacity, elegant footwork and intelligent counter-punching.
The legitimacy of this contest is in stark contrast to the vaudeville show featuring esteemed former champion Mayweather and MMA brawler McGregor.
In so grossly over-selling this farce the pair have proved themselves the greatest illusionists Las Vegas has seen since the much-lamented Siegfried and Roy made white tigers disappear mid-air.
Strange things do happen in boxing – and this is supposedly strictly under Queensberry Rules - but the only way I can see the mouthy Irishman winning is if, at 40, and two years into retirement, Mayweather has totally lost it. Or that there is some sort of contrived controversy to facilitate an even more lucrative rematch than the estimated $400 million they are likely to be sharing.
Otherwise it should be a cakewalk along The Strip for the Money Man.